Affiliation: Tel Aviv University

Abstract:
For centuries, consciousness was considered to be outside the reach of
scientific investigation. Yet in recent decades, more and more studies
have tried to probe the neural correlates of conscious experience, and
several neuronally-inspired theories for consciousness have emerged. In
this talk, I will focus on four leading theories of consciousness: Global
Neuronal Workspace (GNW), integrated Information Theory (IIT), Recurrent
Processing Theory (RPT) and Higher Order Theory (HOT). I will first
shortly present the guiding principles of these theories, and compare
them. Then, I will provide a bird's-eye view of the field, using the
results of a large-scale quantitative and analytic review we conducted,
examining all studies that either empirically tested these theories or
interpreted their findings with respect to at least one of them. I will
then ask what would be the best way to empirically test the theories,
while taking into account some of the biases and trends we found.